Emissions Often Underestimated by Outdated Devices

The nation's oil and chemical plants are spewing a lot more pollution than they report to the Environmental Protection Agency - and the EPA knows it.

By RAMIT PLUSHNICK-MASTITHE Associated Press

HOUSTON | The nation's oil and chemical plants are spewing a lot more pollution than they report to the Environmental Protection Agency - and the EPA knows it.

But the federal agency has yet to adopt more accurate, higher-tech measuring methods that have been available for years.

Significant changes will not be seen for at least two more years, even though an internal EPA watchdog called for improvements in 2006 and some of the more sophisticated measuring devices have been used in Europe since the 1990s.

Records, scientific studies and interviews by The Associated Press suggest pollution from petrochemical plants is at least 10 times greater than what is reported to the government and the public.

Some European countries employ lasers, solar technology and remote sensors to measure air pollution, while the U.S. relies to a large degree on estimates derived from readings taken by plant employees using hand-held "sniffer" devices that check for leaks in pumps and valves.

The failure to get a true assessment of industrial emissions hinders attempts to monitor and regulate public health and air quality. And the problem is seen as especially urgent in oil centers such as Houston, where plants line the city's Ship Channel and nearby residents are ordered to stay inside many times each year for their own safety when the plants belch high levels of toxic substances such as benzene.

"Emissions, we do believe, have been underestimated in general," a top EPA air quality official, Peter Tsirigotis, acknowledged recently.

Although U.S. oil and chemical companies have criticized some of the high-tech measuring devices, complaining they do not yield a full and accurate picture, industry representatives say they will embrace technologies that work and are affordable.

Under the federal Clean Air Act, plants must bear the cost of pollution-monitoring equipment. And the newer, high-tech devices could easily cost hundreds of thousands of dollars.